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Brits Select Broadband As Top Innovation Of Last Decade
Broadband has been chosen by Britons as the number one innovation of the last decade, with reality TV and Facebook being selected the top innovation hates.
The research, conducted by innovation and growth consultancy, The Foundation, found that half of the surveyed 2,243 Brits gave Broadband the top ranking, with Online Shopping, Google, Chip & Pin and Digital Photography making up the top five.
Reality TV and Facebook headed up the top five most loathed innovations of the last 10 years, followed by Pop-up Advertising, Twitter and IVR/Interactive Voice Response on Telephones.
Commenting on the findings, Charlie Dawson, Partner at The Foundation, said: “This survey shows what good and bad innovation looks like to customers. Home broadband was the winner, perhaps surprising if you thought innovation was all about shiny new gadgets”.
Dawson continued: “It’s a reminder of how useful broadband has become for most people in the UK. It allows us to do lots of things more quickly, more effectively and with a lot less effort”.
Dawson added: “Perhaps this explains why 71% of UK households have broadband despite it being an extra cost that no one had to pay before it existed”.
Dorset Agency Gets Broadband Research Funding
A North Dorset agency has been given funding totalling £10,000 to help them put forward their case to BT for the need for faster broadband speeds in their area.
The Communities Partnership Executive of North Dorset (CPEND) is hoping its campaigning will lead to BT upgrading the area’s telephone exchanges or even installing fibre optic broadband more quickly than proposed date of 2015.
Speaking to the Bournemouth Daily Echo, the Chairman of CPEND, Mark Hebditch said: “If we can get users to tell us their broadband speed and why they need it to be faster, there would be a much stronger case for improving it here”.
North Dorset currently looks set to miss out on BT’s installation of fibre optic broadband along the Dorset coast in time for the 2012 Olympic sailing in Portland and Weymouth.
News of the funding comes hot on the heels of problems with Bournemouth’s FibreCity project which has seen plans to provide the town with fibre optic broadband via cables in sewers scrapped following Wessex Water pulling out of the project.
The project is now going ahead via the more normal route of laying cables, which means more traffic disruption for the town as roads are dug up – And more problems for its local driving instructors trying to provide driving lessons in Bournemouth.
People living in North Dorset can share their broadband speeds with the CPEND agency by phoning 01258 489998 or emailing office@dt11forum.org.uk.
Remote Cumbrian Village Builds Own 20Mb Broadband
A remote Cumbrian village has hit the headlines after local residents decided to build their own next generation broadband network with speeds up to 20Mbps.
As reported in the Times, the tiny village of Alston Moor will soon have access to broadband speeds that are faster than some of the UK’s major towns.
Alston Moor is known as “England’s Last Wilderness” to those who live there, thanks to its place high up in the hills of Cumbria.
Like many remote areas in the UK it has struggled for years to get basic broadband access.
That all started to change back in 2002 when the residents created the UK’s first broadband co-operative known as ‘Cybermoor’.
With the help of local people, basic equipment was used to give residents broadband speeds up to 0.2Mb.
Since then, the locals, led by Daniel Heery, have dug their own trenches and laid down next generation cable in an effort to boost the broadband speeds achieved.
Commenting on ‘Cybermoor’, Daniel Heery said: “We hooked into the school’s broadband supply via microwave and we had children teaching their grannies how to use it. It costs about £350 per household for the equipment and £65 for the connection”.
Heery continued, “One remote farmhouse had been up for sale, but everybody who viewed it wanted broadband. It cost the owner £2,000 for us to make the connection, and the house was sold”.
Broadband To Be Hit By Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2?
There is growing concern that the UK’s broadband network may find it difficult to cope with the millions of gamers expected to go online playing the new Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 game that was released last night.
The new version of the game (available for the PC, Xbox360 and the PS3) is set to become one of the biggest selling games of all time, with Play.com reportedly taking 150 pre-orders for the game every minute.
Following the death of Michael Jackson, it became clear that there can be major Internet traffic issues as the world tried to log on and find out as much information as possible about the stars death.
It is now feared that the similar volumes of Internet traffic generated by this online game will affect Internet users and gamers in the same way.
Despite these claims, UK broadband suppliers are keeping cool and claiming that there is nothing to worry about.
Talking to a broadband news site, a Talk Talk (talktalk.co.uk) spokesperson said, “Talk Talk runs the biggest next generation network in the UK and it is optimised to make sure it can cope with high levels of traffic for games such as Call of Duty”.
They continued, “We also offer a turbo boost that allows customers to get the fastest speed their line can handle for just £4 extra per month”.
Whether the UK’s broadband network will cope with the high demand from online gamers is yet to be seen. However, for now gamers are being told to not panic.
Broadband In Rural Scotland Set To Get Funding
Rural Scotland has been earmarked a slice of the £200 million to be handed out by the Government in order to boost the UK’s rural broadband access.
On Friday Stephen Timms, the Communications Minister will outline plans created by the Government to improve the poor quality of the broadband services in rural parts of the UK.
Telephone groups and Scottish local authorities will be attending the meeting to hear the Digital Britain plans for the country.
When speaking about the plans, Mr Timms said, “Digital Britain’s aim is to make the UK one of the most competitive, highly skilled and technologically advanced economies in the world.”
Mr Timms continued, “The Government will spend some £200 million on improving the networks of areas that have little or no service, including remote parts of Scotland”.
The Communications Minister is also expected to reveal further details on how Government funding will be made available to broadband suppliers.
According to Timms, the Government has given itself until 2017 to deliver next-generation broadband speeds across the UK.
50p Broadband Tax Plan Slammed By Tories
The Government’s plan to implement a 50p broadband tax to fund the nationwide roll out of fast broadband has been slammed by the Tories.
The 50p tax to be levied on every home with a fixed telephone line was proposed by the Government in its Digital Britain report and expected to raise up to £175 million.
According to the Tories though, such an unpopular tax will result in failure to install minimum broadband speeds of 2Mbps across the UK by 2012 as ISP’s will rely on state funding rather than invest themselves.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Nick Herbert, the shadow Environment Secretary and Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture Secretary said: “The incentive for operators to invest is destroyed as everyone focuses not on consumers but how to get more state handout”.
They continued: “The tax has been earmarked to encourage investment in modern fibre optic networks – but telecom operators will have no incentive to make any investment of their own if there is the chance to tap into subsidy”.
According to the Conservatives, nearly 170,000 households in the UK are unable to access the internet, while 11% of all UK homes can only access slow broadband speeds.
Tory proposals would involve breaking up BT’s infrastructure monopoly and allowing other providers access to it, which in turn would increase competition and drive roll out to rural areas aswell.
